Sunday, August 4, 2013

PETRONAS has announced that as part of its strategy to optimize the value of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) business, it has decided to directly procure newbuild LNG ships to meet its LNG transportation requirements.

The move will allow PETRONAS to have direct access to LNG shipping capacity at the lowest possible costs.

During her
visit, she signed copies of the book "Mrs. Alcaraz, A Biography" and
"Commodore Alcaraz; First Victim of President Marcos."

With her were granddaughter Hailey Marshall and daughters Ramona and Efigenia. They had a short tour of the Filipino frigate.

"Commodore Alcaraz gained distinction in World War II by shooting down
three Japanese Zero fighters who tried to attack his ship, the Abra
(Q-112) during the first months of the war," the PNA said. - VVP, GMA News

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

No later than this week, people
booking cruises on the three largest cruise lines will see something new on the
company websites: an index of major crimes reported on board their ships since
late 2010, including allegations of rape and murder.

But the announcement did little to
pacify one of the industry’s top critics — U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. —
who has introduced legislation intended to shine more light on an industry that
in 2012 carried 10 million passengers from U.S. ports and resulted in $19.6
billion in U.S. spending.

“Consumers deserve to know what
rights and protections they have and, more importantly, do not have on their
cruise,” said Rockefeller, who last week hauled industry leaders before the
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that he chairs.

Rockefeller has accused the cruise
industry of downplaying serious safety concerns — from crime to ship operations
— while giving unhappy or mistreated passengers little recourse against the
industry.

The decision to post crime rates —
information that critics have long maintained should be public record — was
announced by cruise leaders at a congressional hearing last week. It will apply
initially to the three largest cruise lines, Carnival, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean,
with smaller lines expected to follow suit by reporting statistics to an
industry trade group sometime in the future.

It was a pre-emptive effort by an
industry that’s had a rough recent history — a Carnival ship stranded for days
in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine-room fire and another forced to cut short
a cruise because of an onboard blaze — and is facing increasing scrutiny on
Capitol Hill.

The US senator’s measure would force
the cruise industry to provide a “plain language” explanation of the fine print
in cruise contracts and also establish a federal toll-free hotline for
passenger complaints. The bill also would require the industry to make public
the same crime reports that cruise leaders said they would put on their
websites this week.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Janet Lim Napoles, the businesswoman at the center of the alleged pork barrel scam, is willing to open her bank records for scrutiny in connection with the investigation on the supposed anomaly that has dragged the names of several prominent lawmakers.
"The answer is yes (but) with the appropriate court order," said Napoles' counsel Lorna Kapunan at a press briefing Friday when asked if they would open Napoles' bank records to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which is currently investigating the case.
Napoles is being implicated in a P10-billion scam involving ghost projects allegedly used for kickbacks by lawmakers. Benhur Luy, reportedly a former Napoles employee, claimed the funds allocated for the projects will be deposited to bogus foundations and then withdrawn and transferred to Napoles' bank accounts.

Kapunan dared investigators to unmask the supposed backers of Luy, who is the whistleblower in the case...........................
For more detail go to GMA network

Rep. Doris Matsua (D-CA) and Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) on Tuesday introduced the Cruise Passenger Protection Act, which strengthens provisions in the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act that Congress passed in 2010. This development comes more than a year after the Investigative Unit first raised questions about the accuracy of crime statistics reported at sea.

The Cruise Passenger Protection Act requires cruise companies to install surveillance cameras in all common areas on-board and gives victims the right to obtain video surveillance records if they are part of a civil action against a cruise line.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Norway Is First to Sign Cape Town Fishing Vessel Safety Agreement

The Kingdom of Norway has become the first State to sign the Cape Town Agreement of 2012 on the Implementation of the Provisions of the 1993 Protocol relating to the Torremolinos International Convention for the Safety of Fishing Vessels, 1977.

The Cape Agreement of 2012 updates and amends a number of provisions of the Torremolinos Protocol. In ratifying the Cape Town agreement, Parties agree to amendments to the provisions of the 1993 Protocol, so that they can come into force as soon as possible thereafter.

GROSSETO, Italy (AP) -- The Italian court trying the captain of the
Costa Concordia heard grim details Wednesday about how the 32 victims of
the shipwreck drowned, some after diving or falling into the sea from
the capsized cruise liner when lifeboats were no longer accessible.
A court official read out the names of the deceased passengers
and crew members, and described how each one died, quoting verbatim from
the indictment of the Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino. The
veteran Italian mariner is the sole defendant in the trial, which is
being held in a theater in the Tuscan town of Grosseto.
Schettino is charged with manslaughter, causing the January 2012
shipwreck off the Tuscan island of Giglio, and abandoning ship with
"hundreds of passengers and crew still aboard, unable to care for
themselves or in need of coordination as the ship's tilt increased," the
official said.
The Concordia, on a week-long Mediterranean cruise, speared a
jagged granite reef when, prosecutors allege, Schettino steered the ship
too close to Giglio's rocky shores as a favor to a crewman whose
relatives live on the island.
The reef sliced a 70-meter-long (230-foot) gash in the hull.
Seawater rushed in, causing the ship to rapidly lean to one side until
it capsized, then drifted to a rocky stretch of seabed just outside the
island's tiny port.
Survivors have described an evacuation that was so confused and
delayed that by the time it got under way lifeboats on one side of the
Concordia could no longer be launched because the vessel was already
badly listing.
The reading of the list of the victims began with the death of a
Frenchman, Francis Servel, who "not having found a place on the
lifeboat, threw himself into the sea without a life vest." He was
"sucked toward the bottom of the whirlpool produced by the final
flipping over on the right side of the ship, and then died due to
asphyxiation."
Shortly after the tragedy, survivors recounted how Servel had given his wife his life vest because she didn't know how to swim.
The bodies of victims No. 31 and 32 were never found, but after a
long, futile search of the ship's interior and the nearby waters, they
were declared dead.
One of them was a middle-aged Italian passenger, Maria Grazia
Trecarichi, who, with no place on a lifeboat, and "while waiting to be
rescued" while wearing a life vest, "slid off into the sea because of
the progressive tilt of the boat" and presumably drowned, the court
official said, reading from the indictment.
Victim No. 32 was a Filipino waiter, Russel Terence Rebello. The
court heard how the crewman "remained on the ship to carry out the
lowering of the last lifeboats" and either fell or dove into the sea
because of the Concordia's dramatic tilt and was presumed to have
drowned.
Other victims drowned aboard, as violently swirling water rose up inside the ship.
The court heard how some passengers were "sucked into a vortex"
of water rushing into the ship when the Concordia capsized. This
happened after the crew told them to go to the other side of the ship
where lifeboats were being launched, and the passengers ended up trying
to walk down a tilting corridor.
Wednesday was the first full one-day hearing in the trial, which
is expected to last into next year. Last week it was postponed by a
lawyers' strike.
Earlier Wednesday, lawyers for Schettino said they were making a
last-ditch attempt to reach a plea bargain in the case, which could
result in a long prison sentence if the captain is convicted.
One of his lawyers, Donato Laino, told reporters the defense
wanted a deal that would see Schettino plead guilty in exchange for a
three-year, five-month sentence.
Schettino risks up to 20 years, if found guilty of manslaughter and the other charges.
The bid is essentially a "formality since the prosecution will tell us 'no,'" the LaPresse news agency quoted Laino as saying.
It was not immediately clear when a ruling regarding the plea
bargain might come. But prosecutor Francesco Verusio told reporters
during a recess that he has opposed it because of the "seriousness of
the conduct of the accused."
In May, a different judge in pretrial hearings rejected Schettino's first bid for a plea bargain after the prosecution said no.
But deals have been approved for the five other defendants,
including the helmsman and other ship officers who were on the bridge of
the ship with Schettino when it rammed the reef. The five included an
official of the Italian cruise company Costa Crociere SpA who was
managing the crisis on land.
A judge is expected to rule on Saturday on those defendants'
requests for lenient sentences, no longer than about two years. In
Italy, sentences are often suspended in the cases of first time
offenders that result in punishments of a just a few years or less.
That would leave Schettino, who depicts himself as an innocent scapegoat, as the only defendant risking a long sentence.
Prosecutors have alleged he deliberately guided the ship
dangerously close to the island's rocky coast. The maneuver "was a favor
that the commander, Schettino, wanted to do" for a crew member whose
family lives on Giglio "so they could watch an ultra-close passage (of
the Concordia) near the coast," Verusio told reporters outside the
courtroom.
Some of the 4,200 passengers and crew members who were aboard the Concordia said Schettino shouldn't be the only person tried.
"Frankly, I'm not angry with Schettino," said Gianluca
Gabrielli, a 33-year-old Roman who is a surviving passenger. "I'm angry
with the whole crew. They were smiling at the beginning, but when they
realized that there was danger, they escaped, abandoning us," Gabrielli
said outside the Grosseto theater, which is serving as a makeshift
courtroom to allow more space for the public.
Many survivors who jumped into the sea and swam to shore have
recalled their shock and amazement that Schettino was already there
while others were still on the boat.
Most of the last survivors had to be lifted to safety from the capsized wreck by helicopters.
Many survivors and families of the people killed in the disaster
have filed civil actions that could allow them to seek monetary
compensation from Schettino, if he is convicted.
On Wednesday, Judge Giovanni Puliatti allowed the Italian cruise
company Costa Crociere to do the same. In April, a judge in Tuscany
fined Costa 1 million euros ($1.3 million) for the shipwreck, the
maximum amount allowed under Italian law.
At Wednesday's trial, lawyers for Schettino and for survivors
told the judge they objected to letting Costa attach a civil action to
the criminal trial. But Puliatti sided with the company, indicating
there was no such contradiction.
Most of the seats in the theater Wednesday were empty, as it was
widely expected that the hearing would be taken up by procedural
matters, with no testimony scheduled.
Those issues include the judge's decision about which of some
150 witnesses will be called to testify and when. Testimony is unlikely to begin before September because courtrooms in Italy generally break for vacation in August.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

The European Chamber of Commerce of
the Philippines (ECCP) has assured Vice President Jejomar Binay that the
European Union has no plan to blacklist Filipino seafarers.

Binay, presidential adviser on
overseas Filipino workers’ concerns, has said the assurance came from ECCP vice
president for external affairs Henry Schumacher.

Schumacher told Binay that Filipino
seafarers will continue working in EU-flagged vessels.

“I am relieved to hear such
reassurance that 80,000 of our seafarers in Europe are safe from the
blacklist,” Binay said.

He said he was alarmed by news
reports that the EU is poised to ban Filipino seafarers because of the
Philippines’ failure to comply with the 1978 International Convention on the
Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) for Seafarers.

The Philippines failed to meet EU
standards on maritime education, training and competency certificates, according
to the results of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) audit conducted in
April.

Friday, July 12, 2013

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress July 9 of a possible Foreign Military sale to Saudi Arabia of 30 Mark V patrol boats and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of $1.2 billon.

This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of Saudi Arabia which has been, and continues to be, an important force for stability in the Middle East. This sale of Mark V patrol boats will give the Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF) an effective combat and threat deterrent capability to protect maritime infrastructure in the Saudi littorals. This acquisition will enhance the stability and security operations for boundaries and territorial areas encompassing the Saudi Arabian coastline.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Acting Senate President Jinggoy
Estrada has re-filed a bill seeking to protect the rights and welfare of
Filipino seafarers and their families as set by the Maritime Labor Convention
(MLC) of 2006.

In filing Senate Bill 21, Estrada
said the draft Magna Carta for Seafarers also seeks to institute mechanisms for
the enforcement and protection of their rights, provide compulsory benefits and
implement the standards set by the MLC.

Estrada, chairman of the Senate
committee on labor, employment and human resources development, co-sponsored
Senate ratification of the MLC of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Senate Resolution 118, or Resolution
Concurring in the Ratification of MLC, 2006, was adopted on Aug. 13,
2012. The Philippines is the 30th country to ratify MLC.

The bill defines the seafarers’
fundamental rights to a safe and secure workplace and to fair terms of
employment as prescribed by the MLC.

It also covers the right to
self-organization, to engage in collective bargaining, and to participate in
democratic exercises, among others.

Once passed into law, Filipino
seafarers will have the right to be consulted before any policy or regulation
affecting them will be adopted.

They will also be protected against
discrimination by reason of race, sex, religion and political opinion; will
have access to communication, and decent wage rates as set by the Regional
Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards.

Estrada said the magna carta also
gives the seafarers an eight-hour work period, which should not exceed 14 hours
in a 24-hour work period, or 72 hours in any 7-day period.

According to ILO, there are more
than 1.2 million seafarers worldwide and Filipino seafarers make up 30 percent
of the global shipping fleet.